Follow Us on Twitter

Aziza al-Yousef

I consider myself a human rights activist. What pushed me to this line of work is my hatred of injustice against human beings in general, and Arabs in particular. One of my goals was to draw attention to the amount of injustice people face in the Arab World.

Aziza Al Yousef is a retired lecturer at King Saudi University, is a mother of five and a grandmother of eight. She has been a leading activist in both the My Right, My Dignity campaign to lift the driving ban on women, and the I Am My Own Guardian campaign to end male guardianship laws in the country.

She has been one of the leading participants in the My Right, My Dignity campaign since its start in 2011. She was repeatedly called for questioning by the Saudi authorities, but despite that remained an outspoken critic of the driving ban and the guardianship laws, among a range of other issues. In 2016, she attempted to deliver to the Shura Council a 14,700-signature petition against the guardianship law, that was not met with any meaningful response.

She worked with al-Hathloul, al-Nafjan, al-Modaymeegh, and al-Rabea, to establish Amina (Safe), a shelter for survivors of domestic abuse. After having gone through the legal process for establishing this shelter, the five activists along with the businessman who cosigned to provide financial support for the center, Abdulazi al-Meshal, the six activists were rounded up and thrown in jail just weeks before the driving ban is set to be lifted.